499 boasts legitimate emotional weight, but undercuts its power with too much heavy-handed symbolism. Almost five centuries after the Spanish invasion of Mexico, a lone…
No Man of God works surprisingly well for a while, but fails to stick its schlocky landing. On the day before the official premiere of…
The Meaning of Hitler is a bold, risk-taking work from a confident directorial duo. Adapted from Sebastian Haffner’s The Meaning of Hitler, a book that the…
Cryptozoo is both technically and thematically potent, but it’s the film’s third act which cements it as an exceptional and surprising animated work. In Cryptozoo,…
Ma Belle, My Beauty is a lovingly realized and mature look at polyamory, but it fails to probe its emotional core sufficiently. Polyamory is a subject…
Respect is a generic, overlong, unconvincing slog that’s disrespectful to the Queen of Soul’s legacy. When it comes to portraying pop culture icons known by millions…
White As Snow adds a wry wrinkle of feminist reclamation to its classic storyline, but unfortunately fails to successfully execute much else. Like so many other…
Curiosa is a shallow bit of French period erotica, sometimes visually compelling but devoid of much insight. Loosely conceived and freely adapted from the photographs and…
Lacking much in the way of an explored thesis, The Viewing Booth only musters the power of a gimmick. Talking about the patent-pending Interrotron in a 2004…
Swan Swan’s good intentions get lost amid its tonal disarray and narrative faceplants. Character actor extraordinaire Udo Kier takes center stage in Swan Song, writer-director…
Fullt Realized Humans is a half-realized film, awkwardly sliding between authenticity and sitcom superficiality. Bland but inoffensive, Joshua Leonard’s post-mumblecore rom-com Fully Realized Humans resembles nothing…
Ride the Eagle is a slight, breezy affair that succeeds on the strength of its comedic charm and slick pacing. If you had another chance with…
Enemies of the State fails to probe deeply, content with its story’s sensational surface at the expense of more meaningful study. Produced by genius documentarian and…
Nine Days angles toward profundity, but is a largely maudlin, intellectually bankrupt genre-exercise of self-congratulation. In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, prisoners sit facing a wall…
Never Gonna Snow Again harnesses is an oddball, observational film that manages to comment on much without veering into obviousness. Premiering at the 2020 Venice Film…
There’s no denying that Val indulges in a bit of hagiography, but it remains a frequently engaging study of its enigmatic subject. Actor Val Kilmer has…
Ailey ably captures and reflects its eponymous subject’s abiding vision: art’s capacity as a universal language. On December 4, 1988, dancer-choreographer Alvin Ailey received the…
Miller is a talent to watch, but Joe Bell is profoundly tone-deaf, little more than queer cinema for straight people. Joe Bell is the kind of…
How It Ends is the kind of pandemic-shot film that fails to capitalize on the novelty of its creation’s circumstance. New indie comedy How It…
Eyimofe is yet another sub work sliding in neatly under the exhausted moniker of European art house. Imagine, ever so briefly, that you’re actually in…